The African Travel Ministry Assisting Nigeria’s Persecuted Christians
LAGOS, Nigeria — Maria lives in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, along with her husband and four children, content with being farmers and living in the fields.
But the 27-year-old woman, who did not want to be identified by her full name, have always faced persecution for their Christian identity.
Last year, Islamic rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces emerged from the nearby forest and beheaded her husband, kidnapped her son and shot her twice.
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“My husband blocked our boy, and I crawled into the bush, but they shot my foot and stomach. When they killed him, I felt dead too; I lost my mind. My first thought was the children, how would I provide for them,” she recalled.
The woman asked to be identified by only her first name due to ongoing safety concerns.
The ADF pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2018 and now targets Christians in the DRC and Uganda. Last year, the ADF was responsible for over 200 civilian deaths in the DRC, including 40 men, women and children who were attending a church gathering in Komanda.
In Nigeria, the global epicenter of violence against Christians, the situation is grimmer. Pastor Jehu, who did not want to be fully identified for fear of his life, has a broken arm and lives with his with a traumatized family in a displaced persons camp after being attacked by Islamic insurgents in 2019.
He said he and his family were targeted for their Christian faith. Recently, scores of people were shot dead on March 29, which coincided with Palm Sunday, in a predominantly Christian area of Jos, Nigeria.
“Militants surrounded us, some with guns, some with machetes, some with sticks,” the pastor said. “My brother was shot dead, and his wife was shot, macheted and killed. I kept running and was attacked with a stick, my hand was broken.”
The 2026 World Watch List shows that one in five Christians in Africa are killed because of their faith in Jesus. In Somalia, Christians have no access to Bibles and are martyred either by Al-Shabaab terrorists or family members in honor killings. Meanwhile, in Mozambique, Christians are killed by ISIS-affiliated groups, and in Algeria, only one Protestant church remains open.
“As a pastor, I’m supposed to take care of my sheep. But people are losing their hope in God because of the situation they are in,” the pastor said. “I don’t have anything to give them. We can only pray and share the Word.”
The travel ministry operated by Open Doors South Africa allows Christian missionaries to visit fellow Christians in persecution, bringing encouragement, prayers and resources to strengthen their faith.
Open Doors South Africa was founded in 1971 and grew from the work of Andrew van der Bijl, who began distributing Bibles and aid to persecuted Christians in China, Vietnam, Africa and the other predominantly Muslim areas in 1955.
The travel ministry in South Africa operates up to five trips a year, to different parts of Africa where Christians are at risk, including Egypt, the Central African Republic, Nigeria, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. To be eligible for the travel ministry, one must be a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, be over 18 years and under 70 years, be healthy, fit to travel and able to bear the financial cost of travel.
Travelers typically spend one week to 10 days in-country and bring prayers, encouragement and material resources to Christians targeted for their faith. Open Doors South Africa also fundraises globally to meet the needs of Christians displaced for their faith across Africa.
“There are more than 16 million Christians in the Sahel who have fled their homes and live in camps,” Lynette Leibach, executive director of Open Doors South Africa, told Religion Unplugged. “It is interesting that they don’t ask for material stuff or for the persecution to stop, the number one thing they ask for is prayers to continue to stand for their faith, and so travelers spend a lot of time in prayers, listening and being there for other believers, often in secret.”
Through its emergency relief fund and training packages, Open Doors South Africa meets the basic needs of food, shelter, security and education and longer-term needs of skills training, leadership training and trauma counseling of persecuted Christians. According to Leibach, over 1,600 Christians have traveled across Africa, enabling believers in persecuted cities access to encouragement, prayers, counseling, training and emergency relief.
With the help of the emergency relief fund, Maria now owns a shop, where she sells everyday items.
Jehu also leads a fellowship of believers in the camp at a makeshift church.
“God has sustained me and kept me, and I will not lose my confidence in Him, our eyes and our hope are on God,” he said. “If God will fight this battle for us, a day shall come when we will live a good life.”
Violence against Christians in Africa is increasingly escalating, and increasing the work for Open Doors South Africa. Leibach said churches are being driven underground and, in some cases, on the verge of extinction through a combination of ongoing conflicts, pressure, hatred and advanced surveillance.
“The numbers are increasing, and Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most violent place in the world for Christians,” Leibach said.
Leibach said insurgency and civil wars are fuelling persecution and complicating the mechanisms for support: “The ongoing civil war in Sudan, for example, has caused unimaginable suffering, and it also means that when there is conflict, Christians are often targeted first.”
Chinonso Kenneth is a writer based in Lagos, Nigeria.